Austin mayor pleads guilty to electioneering

The mayor of Austin, Ind., pleaded guilty and a city employee made a pretrial diversion agreement Tuesday following allegations of unethical campaigning.

Mayor Doug Campbell pleaded guilty to electioneering and is now on probation and will have to perform community service with campaign partner Terry Danner.

Campbell and Danner were accused of voter fraud last year in Campbell’s reelection campaign.

Those accusations were dismissed.

"This is what we call a new charge, and it involves just campaigning when you know somebody's holding an absentee ballot,” said Campbell’s attorney, Kathleen Sweeney.

Campbell was accused of voter fraud last year, but special prosecutor Barry Brown said those accusations were dismissed due to evidential problems with witnesses.

"These people were good people but it's difficult to ask people to commit, and possibly expose themselves to depositions,” Brown said.

Campbell is still Austin's mayor and will avoid jail time, but will serve 180 days probation, pay a $500 fine and perform 50 hours of community service.

Indiana state statutes only require a removal from office in a Class D felony.

Electioneering is a Class A misdemeanor.

“We believed as we had seen, there was absolutely no fraud involved. Mr. Campbell did what (Prosecutor) Mr. Brown said he did. He took responsibility for it,” Sweeney said.

Danner will still have to pay $270 in court fees and perform 100 hours of community service.

Prosecutors said they were satisfied with the agreements and it sends a message to Campbell.

"We felt this was the best result. He's held accountable and he carries a conviction,” Brown said.

“There was no fraud involved in that mayor's race and he's happy to have it resolved and move on, get back to work,” Sweeney said.

Campbell issued a statement, it reads, in part:

"I want to make it clear that I have not engaged in any type of fraudulent or unethical activity. The people of Austin spoke loud and clear when they reelected me by a large margins in both the primary and general elections.

“It is important that I emphasize that the law I violated had no impact on the integrity or outcome of those elections."